I remember someone once either saying or quoting to me something like this: do what you love, and find a way to get paid for it, and then you're getting paid to do what you love. In a sense, if you can find a way to get paid to do the things that you most love in life, you'll always love your labor, and your work won't feel much like a burden.
I share these sentiments in some ways. Actually, in a lot of ways. I love the labor in which I am engaged. I find joy in sharing what God has to say, in encouraging and exhorting people, and in teaching people what God says and what that means for their lives. There is a great joy in that. Sure, there are some parts of the labor that are a little more tough, like comforting people in loss, supporting them in sickness, or helping them to find solutions to the challenges of life, but really, I more and more believe that God created me with the desire to do that, and I'm very fortunate that it's part of the task to which I am called.
However, I do think that we, in our North American culture and society, have gone too far in one way. We tend to think of our vocations as merely those places where we go to work. In a simple, mathematical way, we think Vocation=Work. And while there is some truth to that, I would argue that God's Word in the Bible displays a much deeper approach to vocation.
Think of it this way. God doesn't really have a lot to say about the individual directions that we should go in regard to our work in this world. Whether I work to install carpets, fight fires, stay at home with my child, or minister to people with God's Word, doesn't seem to make that huge of a difference to God. Sure, He creates us with certain talents, abilities, and desires that tend to work better in one field than another, but overall, it sure doesn't seem that we can choose the "wrong" career in God's eyes. (Of course, I should mention that any careers which are blatantly sinful would not be included in this category. I'm sure you can think of a few on your own.)
However, there are a great number of "vocations" that God does say a lot about in the Bible. Tomorrow I plan to touch on a few of these to show us that God really does have a much greater scope of the thought of vocation than what we tend to apply. So stay tuned!
I share these sentiments in some ways. Actually, in a lot of ways. I love the labor in which I am engaged. I find joy in sharing what God has to say, in encouraging and exhorting people, and in teaching people what God says and what that means for their lives. There is a great joy in that. Sure, there are some parts of the labor that are a little more tough, like comforting people in loss, supporting them in sickness, or helping them to find solutions to the challenges of life, but really, I more and more believe that God created me with the desire to do that, and I'm very fortunate that it's part of the task to which I am called.
However, I do think that we, in our North American culture and society, have gone too far in one way. We tend to think of our vocations as merely those places where we go to work. In a simple, mathematical way, we think Vocation=Work. And while there is some truth to that, I would argue that God's Word in the Bible displays a much deeper approach to vocation.
Think of it this way. God doesn't really have a lot to say about the individual directions that we should go in regard to our work in this world. Whether I work to install carpets, fight fires, stay at home with my child, or minister to people with God's Word, doesn't seem to make that huge of a difference to God. Sure, He creates us with certain talents, abilities, and desires that tend to work better in one field than another, but overall, it sure doesn't seem that we can choose the "wrong" career in God's eyes. (Of course, I should mention that any careers which are blatantly sinful would not be included in this category. I'm sure you can think of a few on your own.)
However, there are a great number of "vocations" that God does say a lot about in the Bible. Tomorrow I plan to touch on a few of these to show us that God really does have a much greater scope of the thought of vocation than what we tend to apply. So stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment